


The Woman in the Window

by greygerbil



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Horror, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 00:29:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16482644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greygerbil/pseuds/greygerbil
Summary: At first, JJ is happy that a booking problem at the hotel he was supposed to stay at has put him on the street together with his secret crush Georgi. He did not expect the place they go to instead to be actually haunted, though.





	The Woman in the Window

**Author's Note:**

> For Spookyweek 2018, Day 5: Haunted House

“This hotel isn’t so bad.”

JJ glanced doubtfully at the worn cushions on the bar stools and the flickering light above before he looked back at Georgi, who shrugged his shoulders.

“It has character,” he added.

“Guess that’s one way to put it.”

The walls being plastered in weird early 20th century advertisements could probably be called character. The posters looked like they really were from that time, too, all yellowed. Dust was collecting on odd knickknacks sprinkled around the shelves that lined the walls of the bar, like weird porcelain dolls and a whole pack of identical telephone books of Barcelona from 1976, despite the fact that they were in Detroit.

But JJ wouldn’t complain too loudly. The mix-up at the hotel that most of the skaters had been booked into for Worlds had left him on the street together with Georgi Popovich, after all, on whom he’d had a bit of a crush for even longer than he was broken up with Isabella, if he was honest. The chance to get him on his own was rare, JJ just didn’t really know what to do with it yet. For now, they were at least together while they waited for a maid to prepare their rooms. If only he could think of something really interesting to say...

“Would you boys like something to drink?”

The man behind the bar had appeared so suddenly that it made JJ jump in his seat. He tried to regain his cool quickly before Georgi, who didn’t look startled at all.

“Sparkling water for me,” he said, glancing over at Georgi. “Same for you?”

He’d have liked to order for him like he’d always done for Isabella because that just seemed suave to him. Sadly, he didn’t know Georgi that well yet.

“Pineapple juice, please,” Georgi said with a brief shake of his head.

Okay, JJ wouldn’t have guessed that, but at least it was easy to remember.

“What brings you here?” the bartender asked. He was old but well-built, precise in his movements, and had an anchor tattooed on his arm. A thick beard obscured the lower half of his face.

“We’re figure skaters attending Worlds,” JJ said with a grin, “which I’ll be winning.”

He had already taken the 4CC from Yuuri and he would not back down this time, either.

“Don’t count the rest of us out yet,” Georgi said, raising a brow at him.

“You did do pretty well at Europeans,” JJ allowed, generously. Given Georgi’s age and track record, a fourth place wasn’t bad at all. JJ didn’t plan on going home without a medal, though.

“Well, I hope you get a good night’s sleep, in that case,” the bartender said, pouring their drinks and setting them down before them on the sticky wooden surface.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Georgi asked, picking up his juice.

“The beds are good and all, but folks say the place is haunted.”

JJ laughed. “Haunted?”

The man nodded his head. “Well, that’s how the rumours go, anyway. Don’t think I ever saw anything. But it is built on an old graveyard, so you never know.”

JJ gave Georgi a big grin to suppress the flicker of fear that appeared when he heard of the origin of the ghost stories. That was probably just part of the urban myth, too. Who built houses on graveyards, anyway? Not that it mattered because ghosts didn’t exist.

“Did you hear that? I bet those dolls are coming after us tonight,” he said, pointing at the porcelain girls in their dusty flower dresses.

Georgi smiled briefly. “I think we could fend them off.” His brow knit. “Other types of ghosts, though… who knows.”

He sounded so serious that JJ really couldn’t say if he was.

“If you find any ghosts in your room tonight, you’re free to come knocking on my door. I’ll protect you,” he said.

“Do you know how to fight ghosts?” Georgi asked, taking another gulp of his juice.

“I haven’t tried it yet, but JJ the King isn’t going to be intimidated by a hundred years dead grandpa.”

“Then I will come to JJ the King for help,” Georgi answered and though he was obviously teasing, JJ really liked hearing him say his self-chosen title.

-

The room was small and clean and looked like it could be in someone’s grandma’s house. There were flowers on the beige duvet, curtains with tassels and a carpet that you sank into. The key was heavy brass. JJ placed it on the little white doily that covered the bedside table.

He had just gotten out of the shower and dressed in his shorts and JJ Style branded t-shirt when, from the corner of his eyes, he caught a figure moving in the courtyard below. His first glance was reflex, taking note of the one living thing he had spotted down there so far, but his gaze was arrested by how weirdly the person moved. The woman, who was long-haired and wearing an ankle-length dress with puff sleeves, was sort of dragging one foot behind, and lurching forward by thrusting her shoulder first. Her head dangled a bit, as if her neck could not support it fully.

Was she hurt? Did she need help? JJ tried to open the complicated, old-fashioned latch on the window and saw her stop for a moment, head turning to look his way. Her face was obscured by her hair. However, before he had managed to fully open up, she had vanished. JJ figured she must have entered the building through one of the doors at the other side of the courtyard while he was focusing on the window.

Well, the reception was right at the front, so hopefully she’d find someone to talk to there. Come to think of it, maybe she was just disabled or something. Volunteering in a care home for charity during one summer, JJ had seen a lot of people with neurological diseases that made their bodies do things which looked a bit strange from the outside. If she’d needed help, she probably would have stopped when she heard someone working on the window.

He left the window open and laid down on the bed, trying to refocus on tomorrow. After the Grand Prix, he was not ready to let himself be humiliated once more. No more cracking under the pressure. He’d done well at 4CC and he was going to take the gold at Worlds this time for sure. Victor was just an old man and Yuri barely one. Yuuri had beaten him once, true, but JJ had caught him up at 4CC. Why shouldn’t he be able to build on that?

The window clattered. If it was too windy, he’d have to close it, otherwise the noise or the draft might keep him awake. Slowly, JJ opened his eyes. Fear hit him like a fist as he saw something big and vaguely human-shaped hanging halfway through his window.

As his eyes flew fully open, he realised that the thing climbing inside was possibly a woman. She wore a dress, at least – the same dress with the puff sleeves. Her body was contorted strangely, rotating at the elbows and shoulders like it shouldn’t, her hip looking broken as she somehow seemed to be climbing inside the room from _above_ like a spider that clung to the wall. Long hair covered patches of raw flesh on her face as she stared wide-eyed at him, her blue-lipped mouth opening too wide at the sides like it had been split open.

JJ jumped from the bed and barrelled out of the room, running down the corridor in his sleeping clothes, almost stumbling twice over the uneven wooden floorboards. Georgi was in the room at the other end of the hallway. He banged at his door with his flat hand, staring over his shoulder at his own open door.

Moments later, which may as well have been days in JJ’s mind, a key clicked in the lock and Georgi opened the door in just black briefs. He stared at JJ with a frown, but JJ grabbed him by his naked shoulder and pushed him into the room, slamming the door shut.

“There’s a ghost!” he shouted.

“A ghost?” Georgi echoed. “You saw one?”

His calm answer was like a bucket of ice water over JJ’s head. He opened his mouth to say ‘yes, I saw a ghost’, but found himself stifled by how ridiculous that really sounded, especially in front of this guy he really wanted to impress. Suddenly, he was embarrassed, but at the same time no less scared.

“I... maybe I was dozing off?” He didn’t feel even sleepy yet, though. “I just...”

The sentence petered out.

“They _did_ say the place was haunted,” Georgi supplied, when JJ didn’t know what to say anymore. “Maybe I should take a look.”

He reached for the door and, without thinking, JJ grabbed his arm.

“Wait, what if it’s dangerous. If it’s really a ghost?”

In that moment he didn’t care how much he sounded like an idiot because Georgi facing off against that thing he’d seen was a terrible thought.

“It’s okay, I’ll just look,” Georgi said, opening the door.

JJ followed, against every instinct, and found himself gaping. Out of the door to his room, that terrible woman was dragging her body, which still looked like it had half the bones broken and just as many ligaments torn. His hand grew white-knuckled tight around Georgi’s arm.

“Do you see it?” he whispered.

“Yes,” Georgi muttered. He was staring intently ahead.

The woman shuffled towards them and, to JJ’s great horror, Georgi moved forward, too. He was left walking with him, still holding on to him as he was, and despite his fear not quite willing to let him face her alone.

“What are you doing?!” JJ whispered harshly. “Are you trying to get killed?”

“I don’t think she’s dangerous,” Georgi said. “If she were, she’d have already attacked.”

JJ had no idea where he took that certainty from.

“Hello,” Georgi said, louder, when only a few steps separated them from the ghost. 

The woman stopped, regarded them closely. JJ tried not to look at her eyes, which were a sickly yellow all over.

“Are you looking for someone?” Georgi asked.

The woman said nothing. She kept staring at them. Georgi looked her up and down and JJ did the same if only to take his eyes off her face. Now that he thought about it, her dress was very old-fashioned, turn-of-the-century or something.

“You look like you have been here a while,” Georgi said. “I’m afraid whoever you’re looking for is probably not here anymore.”

She opened her mouth and let out an angry, wordless sound. JJ’s heart jumped.

“You have to go,” Georgi continued. “There’s nothing for you here.”

Gently, he pried his arm out of JJ’s grip and took three more carefully measured steps toward her. The woman cringed away from him, her furrowed, gruesome face expressing fear as much as it still could.

“Trust me, it’s better this way.”

Lifting his hand to his mouth, Georgi bit down on his palm and then reached for her, saying something in Russian that JJ didn’t understand. There was a scream that echoed in a way the narrow hallway shouldn’t have allowed and the broken woman dissipated into fog.

Georgi dropped his hand. The was a small, bloody gash on the bottom of it. JJ did the sign of the cross over his chest, a habit that felt strangely powerless in the face of all this.

“How sad,” Georgi sighed, looking back at him, “all these years spent looking for someone and they probably left many decades ago. Doesn’t it sound terrible to be stuck in a place for so long, searching without answers?”

“Why... why do you know how to do that?” JJ stammered. “What you just did.”

Georgi walked back past him towards his room and JJ followed.

“It’s something my grandma taught me many years ago. I think she always knew she would come back. She was quite restless in life, too. To be sure she wouldn’t hurt anyone, she needed someone to be able to dispel her.” He frowned. “She was a bit more militant than this woman, though. She almost speared me with a carving knife.”

JJ sat down heavily on the edge of Georgi’s bed, staring up at him.

“I...”

He had no idea what to say, truthfully. He hadn’t believed in ghosts since he was eight.

“It’s fine,” Georgi said sternly, sitting down next to him. “It’s scary seeing your first ghost, I know. But once you realise where they turn up and what they act like, you’ll just keep noticing them. It’s safer to know about them, even if most people will think you’re crazy. But maybe I could teach you a bit, just enough so you don’t have to run.” He shook his head. “Well, not all the time. Some things one should not pick a fight with.”

“Yeah, I... think I want to know more.”

It certainly was better than just knowing a little bit because that was freaking him out a lot right now.

JJ squeezed his folded hands between his thighs. This was probably his cue to get up and walk back into his room, since Georgi had taken care of the woman, but what if she was not the only one? His knees were still shaking, too. Facing his room seemed impossible right now. Yet, he did not want to look like a coward in front of Georgi anymore than he already had.

The silence stretched on.

“Do you want to stay here tonight?” Georgi asked, glancing behind himself at the pillows. “The bed is big enough.”

JJ thanked him silently for reading his mind.

“Uh... I guess it’s safer to stay together in a hotel like this. Who knows if there’s other ghosts, right?!” he asked, grinning a little too forcefully. “It’s just reasonable.”

“Of course,” Georgi said with a small smile.


End file.
